This invention relates to transmission by electronic media including radio and television broadcasting programs, as well as recordings of such programs, to listeners and viewers of the programs and, more particularly, to the provision of signals designating questions or tasks including a wagering situation, to the provision of response criteria for evaluating responses of the listeners and viewers of the broadcast or prerecorded programs, and to the dispensing of awards to individual listeners and viewers having provided answers meeting the response criteria and/or placed a wager.
The invention also particularly relates to the transmission of signals conveying scenarios of events about to take place or taking place and to outcome criteria for evaluating predictions of listeners and viewers of the broadcasts of such events and to the dispensing of awards to individual listeners and viewers having provided predictions meeting the outcome criteria. An example of a situation involving a prediction is a wagering situation in which a player designates a wager applied to a possible outcome of a given scenario.
A common form of program transmitted by the broadcast media is the quiz program. Typically, in such a program, a panel of people provide answers to questions arising from the subject matter of the quiz. Often, the answers are indicated by use of a keyboard with electronic circuitry. The answers may be provided in response to questions which are asked directly, or in response to a situation such as a chess game, or task presented by the program such as in the solving of a puzzle. Other situations such as in sports, call for predictions of outcomes of events.
A characteristic of such quiz programs is the fact that the responses to the questions are limited to participants in the studio audience. The much larger external audience, namely the listeners of radio and viewers of television, are generally excluded from participation except for those few people who, on occasion, may have the opportunity to call in a response via telephone to a situation arising in the program. Letter writing has also been employed as a means of response to questions and other matters raised by the program.
Thus, it is apparent that a problem exists in that a large percentage of the external audience is essentially excluded from active participation in the broadcast programs. In view of the fact that the studio audiences can provide their responses electronically, it is clear that personal involvement, such as conversation among participants, is not necessarily required. It is, therefore, apparent that such programs should be open to participation by the larger external audience in addition to the studio audience; yet, no system providing for such participation has been available.
It is noted that this problem is not limited to quiz programs only, but that other forms of programs in the areas of education and research might also be conducted in a fashion allowing active public participation if a suitable system were available to make such public participation possible. A desirable feature of such a system would be the capability for evaluating and recording the responses, a feature that would be very useful in the case of educational programs because such a feature would permit a teacher to grade or otherwise evaluate papers and examinations dispensed to students by the broadcast media. Such a system would also be useful in commercial ventures wherein a prize is to be given to a participant providing an acceptable answer. In such a case, the participant would bring the recorded answer, which might be in the form of a coded credit card, to a store or other establishment for receipt of the prize. This would be a great convenience in the implementation of a sales and advertising program. Responses by the listening or viewing audience can also be used in conducting a survey of public opinion. However, in spite of the advantages which would be provided by such a system, for including the listening and viewing audience, no practical system has yet been available.
It would be advantageous also if the equipment of the system could be employed in the conduct of wagering, whether a simple lottery or a more complex situation involving wagering based on responses to a quiz game, educational game or a situation relating to the advertising of a product. It would be advantageous furthermore if such wagering could be conducted electronically so as to inhibit forgery and to reduce the number of inconvenient trips which a better must make to a lottery agent. Such a system and method of wagering is not available at the present time.
The foregoing problem is overcome, and other advantages are provided by a system for the evaluation of responses to a broadcast or a prerecorded program wherein a response may include the entry of a wager on a possible outcome of a situation presented in the program. In accordance with the invention, the system provides for the transmission of signals designating conditions of the wagering and, in the case of scenarios, games or other events upon which a person may wish to bet, the system provides questions and response criteria along with a transmission of the broadcast program. In the event of questions or similar tasks, signals may be recorded prior to transmission, and may be transmitted at a fixed predetermined time, or upon request of a person who will respond to the program and/or questions. The invention includes both method and system aspects which create added interest and excitement among listeners and viewers, and thus tend to increase the audience of stations carrying programs of the type to be described hereinafter.
In accordance with the theory of the invention, two groups of signals are broadcast, wherein each of the two signal groups may be divided in two portions designated as first and second signals. In the first signal group, the first of the two signals includes the program signal itself which may be broadcast from a radio station or television station to the listening or viewing audience. The second signal of the first group is a signal transmission setting forth a task, such as the answering of one or more questions which may be viewed on a television screen and/or listened to over radio or the audio portion of the television transmission. For simplicity in describing the invention, an audience viewing a televised program is presumed. It is understood that the description of the invention in terms of the viewing audience applies also to the listening audience of a radio broadcast.
The second of the two signal groups is in the nature of an instructional signal group identifying the amount of time available for an answer, the proper content and form of an acceptable answer, and a mode of scoring the answers. In one embodiment of the invention, the first signal of the second signal group sets forth the desired acceptable answer or answers, and the second signal provides the mode of scoring responses, such as the parameters, formulas and other response criteria to be employed in the scoring of the answers. Therefore, in this one embodiment of the invention, the two signal groups include at least four sets of signals which are transmitted, each of which can be varied independently of the other, and which may be transmitted concurrently or at different times.
Included at the site of each viewer in the external or remote audience is a television set, plus electronic response equipment having circuitry for reception of the instructional signal group transmitted from a central station, the response equipment also including a keyboard for designating answers or responses to the questions, timing circuitry, circuitry for comparing a response to one or more designated answers to determine acceptability of a response, scoring circuitry, and a recording device for recording answers to the question. The recording device includes preferably a dispenser for dispensing a record such as a printout, or a magnetizable card containing a person""s responses to the questions and/or a person""s score in answering the questions.
A particular advantage of the invention is the capacity for interaction between a person conducting a broadcast program and the external audience. This may be illustrated by way of example wherein a sportscaster is describing a sporting event such as a football game. The questions asked by the sportscaster may pertain to the winning team, to plays that have been accomplished, as well as to questions which may be called in by telephone from the listening/viewing audience. During the program, commercials may be aired, and various products and/or services may be described and offered to the viewing audience.
In the practice of the invention, it is noted that signals of the instructional signal group, Group Two, may be transmitted before, concurrently, or subsequent to the transmission of the program signals in accordance with the nature of the questions and responses required. For example, in the event that the program situation deals with a college professor giving an examination, the correct or acceptable answers to the various questions and the procedure for scoring answers to individual ones of the questions can be transmitted before the lecture in which the professor asks the questions. In the event that a limited period of time is available for response to each of the questions, then, at least a portion of the instructional signals, Group Two, must be sent concurrently with the program data, this portion being a timing signal which the professor would initiate when he asks the question. The timing signal would initiate operation of a timer in the electronic equipment at each of the receiving stations which are tuned to the broadcast program, the timer then clocking a requisite amount of time in accordance with an instructional signal which has been previously transmitted or is concurrently transmitted with the program data. In yet a further example, in the case of an interactive situation wherein the professor is responding to a comment made by a student in the classroom or, possibly in response to a telephoned inquiry, the professor may then ask a question for which the instructional signal designating the nature of the response would be transmitted after the question has been asked.
At a receiving station the electronic equipment includes a response unit having a keyboard by which a viewer of the broadcast program enters a response. The response should be a desirable or correct response, or at least an acceptable response in order to receive credit. The response is stored in a buffer store for comparison with a correct or acceptable response which is stored in a data memory. One or more acceptable responses are provided as a data input to the data memory by the instructional signal group. The comparison is provided by comparison circuitry which outputs a signal via timing circuitry to a score counter to provide a score at the conclusion of responses to a question. The timing circuit, under control of a program memory, is activated upon request from the host of the transmitted program. Instructional signals transmitted by the host are modulated onto the audio portion of the transmitted signals and, subsequently at a receiving station, are demodulated and decoded to provide the data signals for the data memory, synchronization signals for operation of the timing circuitry, and instructional signals for operation of the program memory. Alternatively, the instructional signals may be transmitted at television frequencies by known methods, such as the use of vertical blanking intervals or other unused parts of a television transmission. The resulting score from the score counter may be recorded in a readout device which, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, provides a printout or a card with an encrypted value of the score in a magnetic strip that is readily read by automatic card readers. According to one embodiment, a register may be included for the storage of responses which are printed or typed out in the form of a message. The message may be passed on to the readout device under instruction of the program memory.
At each of the remote receiving stations, circuitry responsive to the third signals is provided for implementing the response criteria. In particular, provisions are made to evaluate responses to the same question at different difficulty levels. For example, different amounts of credit can be given based on the speed at which a viewer responds to the question. Also, answers showing a more detailed, accurate or comprehensive understanding can be weighted to provide greater credit for responding to the question. If desired, a set of response criteria may include only one difficulty level.
The readout or dispensing device provides a printout having at least two sets of information. The information may be provided on a tape or card in printed lettering and/or in a bar code format to show the value of any award which might be given, and a verification of the fact that the award has been made. The printout may also verify the identity of the person answering the question. The verification may be provided either by a signal transmitted from a central station as part of the instructional group of signals to be stored at the remote location or, alternatively, by use of a validation code taking the form of alphanumeric data and/or other symbols, such as a machine readable code, which the dispenser is capable of printing. The value of the award is printed preferably in alphanumeric form so as to be readily understandable by the participant.
In the event that a two-way cable system is available, such system may be used to advantage in the practice of the invention by providing for transmission of the television program to a remote audience while also enabling members of the remote audience to communicate responses or other commentary back to the broadcasting station.
It is recognized that there may be situations wherein it is impractical to have communication of receiving stations with a studio at the central station at the time when the program is being generated. The invention would then be practiced by use of a further embodiment in which the program and instructional signals, including response criteria and scoring criteria, would be recorded for playback to the receiving stations at a later time. Such a situation might arise in the case of an educational program to be employed in a school, or to a program of general public interest which might be employed in a vehicle for public transportation, such as an aircraft. In the event that television is available at the receiving stations, the transmission and receiving equipment would be the same as that employed for the embodiment of the invention as disclosed above. However, in the event that only audio reception is possible, as by the use of earphones in an aircraft, then a verbal description of the task-setting situation would be provided, both the task setting and instructional verbal signals being recorded in an audio tape recording. Each of the receiving stations may be provided with a dispenser of hard-copy of results to responses to the task-setting message or, alternatively, a central dispenser may be used as in a classroom or aircraft, the central dispenser communicating via a digital communication system to response units at each of the receiving stations.
The transmission of a program, such as the playback of an audio-visual tape, may be initiated by a member of the remote audience though cable communication, including telephone. In such instances, a member of the home audience calls a dedicated number, such as a 900-number, and requests the playing of a tape. Such request may be made through a central operator or by dialing further digits of a dedicated number, associated with a specific tape or program selected by the caller.
In accordance with an important aspect of the invention, participants in the remote audience can designate an area of interest. This is particularly important with respect to an award received by individual ones of the participants, such that the award is related directly to a participants area of interest. Thus, in the case of a game show wherein advertiser""s products are displayed in various areas of interest, a participant of the remote audience can select a product area of interest and, subsequently, receive an award in the form of a coupon allowing him to purchase a product in the area of interest. This greatly increases a participant""s interest in the game show. This feature of the invention also greatly increases the chance that a participant will employ his coupon, as by visiting the store of an advertiser to redeem his coupon.
A further advantage of this feature of the invention is that it can be implemented using the electronic communication systems employed in various embodiments of the invention, including the use of a central station to broadcast program material with its set of instructional signals and directives on the imprinting of a coupon. Furthermore, this can be employed using the electronic systems of the embodiments of the invention wherein the program and the instructional signals are prerecorded. This includes the prerecorded format in which recording apparatus may be located, for example, in an aircraft, or may be employed with participants in the home interconnected with a central station by means of a telephone network.
In terms of utilization of the foregoing electronic equipment, questions, instructions, and coupon imprinting directives are transmitted from the central station to the remote stations in a plurality of categories of interest. These categories of interest are presented by the host in the communication transmitted from the central station. For example, in the case of a televised program, the categories of interest may be presented directly on the television screen. In cases wherein the program is transmitted by an audio channel only, then the categories of interest would be listed audibly by the host. The participants at the remote station by use of his response unit, presses a key on the keyboard indicating his selection of a desired category or area of interest. Thereupon, the response unit is responsive only to those questions, instructions, and coupon printing directives pertaining to the selected category of interest, and ignores the remaining questions, instructions, and coupon-printing directives as being irrelevant to the operation of the response unit. This is implemented readily by transmitting to the remote response unit, to be stored in a memory therein, the set of acceptable responses and the accompanying scoring criteria and advertising information for each area of interest. Then a respondent need only signal the response unit as to his desired area of interest, the signal serving to address the corresponding region of the memory. The response unit then operates with the data for the desired area of interest.
Normally, broadcast contests presently conducted are sponsored by manufacturers or retailers of products. Successful respondents may receive prize coupons entitling them to a discount on merchandise promoted by a sponsor. However, winners often receive coupons carrying a discount on merchandise they do not intend to purchase at the time they receive such a coupon. Discount coupons tied in this manner to an unwanted product will not be redeemed and are useless to both the public and the sponsor. It is a weakness of the coupon system presently in use that the overall coupon redemption rate is less than 4%.
The disclosed system and methodology provide for a dispensing of coupons to members of a broadcast audience for redemption, and enable members of the audience who have acceptably responded to a task presented in a broadcast to win a prize coupon carrying a discount deductible from the price of a product selected by such a member for purchase. Local sponsors thereby may promote the sale of products.
The foregoing coupons may be issued in conjunction with a broadcast television and/or radio program requiring an audience response wherein a part or all of the program, is conducted in the form of a lottery, or other wagering situation, in which case the coupon identifies the winning entity which may be a lottery number, or the identity of horse in a horse race, or the identity of a player in a sports event. This is accomplished in accordance with a further aspect of the invention in which the aforementioned equipment can be employed for conducting a lottery game in a fashion which is resistant to forgery.
In accordance with the invention, there is provided a central data storage facility in which all player responses and, when desired, the winning response(s) are stored. Player entries can be authenticated electronically prior to storage at the central facility, and are transmitted either electronically (as by two-way cable, or by modem over a telephone line) from remote sites of players to the central facility. Authentication is accomplished by comparing numbers or names assigned to players, including serial numbers of player entry devices, with reference data previously stored in the central facility. Further authentication is provided by storing at the central facility data, such as the player""s response and the winning number(s), which appears also on the coupon presented for redemption. At a redemption center, an electronic communication link with the central facility permits instant comparison of the two sets of data to verify the authenticity of the coupon and prevent fraud. The central facility may be connected to the remote stations and to a credit agency by means of a telephone network which permits verification of a player""s line of credit, and a charging of lottery fees against a preestablished credit limit.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, numerous central stations, such as television and/or radio stations, may be linked together with a common base station and numerous telephone hubs by a communications system to form a network of broadcast stations serving a much enlarged audience wherein members of the audience are located at their respective remote receiving stations. The network is ideally suited for presentation of network programs of general interest, such as a sweepstakes and other prize events, to the enlarged audience by interspersing relatively short programs in time slots between segments of regularly scheduled disparate broadcast programs from the central stations. The base station provides program material for retransmissions via the central stations of the network. The network program, for any one time slot, may be in any one of a number of forms, particularly a contest having a duration in a range of time extending from less than one minute up to possibly several minutes for presentation on television or radio. The network broadcast may take the form of a well-known network communication commonly employed today for news programs communicated across the country from the base station simultaneously to local broadcasting stations for retransmission to home radios and televisions.
The individual programs are transmitted one after the other from the base station in a sequence extending for the duration of a program, or throughout the day. Each of the network programs occupy a predetermined time slot within a program sequence wherein the times of occurrence of the various programs as well as, possibly, the contents of programs, have been made known previously to the manager of the central station. Each central station is free to select specific ones of the network programs for rebroadcast in accordance with the program scheduling of the individual central station. This provides freedom for the host of the central station to employ network program material which may be live or previously prepared.
A great advantage of the invention is that the use of the network program material interspersed among local programming material allows people across the country to participate simultaneously in a common contest, or a common learning experience, or in a common national survey, by way of example. The use of alternative network programs inserted in opportune time slots allows the central stations to insert the network programs within the regular broadcasting schedules of the respective central station in a manner similar to that of the usual interruption of a broadcast program for a message from an advertiser or sponsor. Thereby, the invention allows for the simultaneous participation of people from across the country to be accomplished without need for any significant rescheduling of local programming.
Many people in the broadcast audience can participate by responding to tasks or questions set forth in the network program by use of electronic or telephone hubs which facilitate entry of the large number of responses, as well as to evaluate and authenticate the responses. Furthermore, valid responses meeting response criteria may also be communicated by telephone link from each electronic hub to a central station for conduction of a sweepstakes. Means for conducting a sweepstakes or other prize event can also be located at and connected to an evaluation hub. Respondents, having provided an acceptable response, can immediately and automatically be entered in a further prize event, which can be a sweepstakes in which winners are randomly determined. Responses can be evaluated at one or more central sites by use of evaluation equipment which may be located in the electronic hubs or, alternatively, evaluation can be accomplished at the individual receiving stations by a response unit. The use of the central evaluation is particularly advantageous because a common evaluation facility allows the sweepstakes or other form of network program to be conducted without need for specialized equipment, other than a radio or television and a telephone, at a participant""s receiving station.
In accordance with a feature in the practice of the invention, it is noted that equipment provided for enabling a respondent to respond to a task, and for evaluating a response, may be provided at the remote location of a respondent or, alternatively, may be provided partly at the remote location and partly at a central station. In the case wherein a fully equipped response unit is provided at the remote location, the equipment of the response unit includes a keyboard, a comparator, scoring circuitry, a memory, as well as other circuitry which may include a computer, and circuitry for applying point credits and displaying information, the equipment including also a printer as well as a modem for communicating via a telephone line. However, it is acknowledged that such equipment may represent an excessive expense to participants at remote locations, in which case the complexity and expense of the equipment at the remote locations can be reduced by placing some of the equipment, such as circuitry involved in comparing and scoring participants"" answers at a central facility remote from the respondents"" locations. Thus, response criteria and scoring criteria which are transmitted via a communications link to the remote receiving locations, in the case of a fully equipped response unit, would be diverted, in the case of a partially equipped remote station, to the central evaluation facility to enable circuitry within the facility to identify acceptable answers, to score the answers, and to credit or weight the answers with additional points appropriate to a difficulty level. In that case, instructional signals directing a printer at a respondent""s location are generated at the evaluation hub and transmitted to the respondent""s location. According to a preferred embodiment, these instructional signals are transmitted via cable to an addressable converter at respondent""s location, which converter is coupled to a printer.
There are other reasons for which equipment, employed in responding to a task, may be located partially at the central evaluation facility. For example, it may be desired to score responses in the order in which responses are received, or it may be desired to alter programming of comparison and scoring circuitry in accordance with the amount of traffic in responses coming in to the evaluation facility. Also, it may be desirable to insure that there can be no tampering with equipment used in evaluating responses, in which case the equipment, for security reasons, is best located at the central facility. Also, it is noted that it may be desirable to rank the scores of the participants, as by time of response, or by magnitude of score, or by geographical region of the respondent, or upon some other basis, in which case ranking can be accomplished best by use of comparison and scoring circuitry at the central evaluation facility. Also, it is noted that a printing facility, for printing coupons, tokens, or other indicia of a proper response may be located at the central evaluation facility. An example is the playing of a game in a public location, such as in an airplane, in which passengers may compete or participate at their seats. Prize coupons are printed at a central location in the airplane and distributed to winning passengers as they exit the airplane. Thus, in the general sense of the invention, the various circuits and equipment can be located as required at either the remote locations or the central evaluation facility. Communication between a central studio, the remote response equipment and the central evaluation facility may be accomplished by dedicated communication lines, by a telephone system, via wireless or cable television and radio transmission, via satellite communication, or a plurality of different forms of communication systems as may be convenient.
Members of the broadcast audience can select or predict winning contestants among members of the studio audience who have agreed to serve as contestants on a game, quiz or other show requiring the generation of responses to tasks and/or questions. Rewards are given to such members of the broadcast audience who have correctly predicted one or more winning contestants. Such a reward may be combined with a prize given to a respondent of the broadcast audience for correctly responding to a task.